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Indian Handicrafts and Gifts Fair (IHGF) was held in New Delhi, February 23 to 27, 2018.
More than 500 buyers from 111 countries and domestic volume retail buyers visited the show to source home, lifestyle, fashion and textile products during the five day extravaganza.
Major Indian retail/online brands Amazon, Furniture Walla, Pepperfry, Good Earth, Archies, Fabindia, Flipkart, Accenture, H&M visited the show and placed orders. This became one of the motivating factors for those exhibitors who had shown their interest for retail sale during the show.
The Ajay Shankar memorial awards for the best design and display stand in the category of houseware, table, kitchen and hotelware, fashion jewelry and accessories, furniture hardware and home accessories, home textiles, furnishing and floor coverings, lamp lighting and accessories and decorative and festive décor were distributed. In each category gold, silver and bronze trophies were given.
The fair is held twice a year. Theme pavilions of NER, Jodhpur and J&K remained one of the highlights of the fair as exquisite crafts of these states attracted many buyers to visit these theme pavilions. The fair has become a major marketing platform to boost exports of small and medium entrepreneurs of the handicraft sector.
Maximum buyers were from the US, UK, Germany, Japan, Australia, France and China.
Handicraft exports during 1994-95 when the fair initiated were Rs 3159 crores and reached Rs 24,000 crores in 2016-17.
The 45th edition of IHGF – Delhi Fair Spring 2018, being organised in India Expo Mart, Greater Noida to woo buyers from around the world with huge collection of 2000 handicrafts products across 14 product categories including house ware, home furnishing, furniture, gifts and decorative, lamp and lighting, Christmas and festive décor, fashion jewellery and accessories, spa and wellness, carpets and rugs, bathrooms accessories, garden accessories, educational toys and games, hand-made paper products and stationery and leather bags manufactured by Indian exhibitors.
Several seminars were conducted during the event where experts from different fields and subjects were invited to upgrade the knowledge of the participating exhibitors.
One of the most important seminar held on 4th day of the event was on Trends and Forecast of Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer 2019 where P. J. Arandor, Fillipino International Lifestyle Designer advised participating companies to manufacture their products as per upcoming trends during Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer 2019 so that that attention of buyers can be gained in forthcoming International and domestic fairs.
The seminar focused on tendencies for the coming season in key colours, core directions, essential moods, relevant materials, dominant patterns and significant images for 2019, said Rakesh Kumar, ED – EPCH.
Kumar further elaborated that the fair also provides an opportunity to exhibiters to promote their products through the fashion shows.
On 4th day, the fashion show showcased jewellery, fashion accessories and artisanal apparel provided by exhibitors such Handicraft and Handloom of Odisa, R.Co. Arts Emporium, Maharaja Crafts, Kohli Overseas Trading Co. and M. A. Internationals.
VF Corporation is changing to a circular business model. Consumers come back with lightly used jackets, shoes, clothes, to get of incentive to purchase something new. VF takes these products and, through a third party, cleans, resells, and recycles them. The company has found every time a retail store has such a program, traffic in the store goes up, conversion rate goes up, and average retail sale goes up.
US-based VF Corp, is an apparel, footwear, and accessory company and has more than 1,500 owned and operated retail locations around the world across its brand portfolio. A look at the overall impact of any company within the apparel industry shows roughly 70 or 80 per cent, if not more, comes from materials. The apparel industry is also incredibly wasteful, driven by a lot of fast fashion.
One challenge is that the economic system is not based on taking products back from consumers. There is not a lot of infrastructure. Consumers are not familiar with the idea of putting clothes into a box to send back to a brand. Who does it go back to? Distribution centers aren’t set up to take products back, wash them, clean them, repair them, and put them on an e-commerce site to sell them again.
Under the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) roadmap, Australia will cut 90 per cent of import tariff lines in 2018 and 100 per cent of them in 2020. Pham Tuan Anh, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Finance’s Department of International Cooperation, says this is a good opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to promote the export of goods to the Australian market when those import tariff lines reduce to zero per cent.
Under AANZFTA Vietnam has had many advantages in exporting agricultural products, consumer goods, textiles, footwear and wood products to Australia and are eligible for tariff preferences. Australia is a potential export market for Vietnamese goods, especially seafood as its consumption in that country has increased rapidly to some one million tonne per year.
At present, Vietnamese enterprises do not have professional knowledge of the retail system, including measures on approaching the system as well as regulations on food hygiene and safety and technical standards. They have forgotten how to introduce and advertise Vietnamese products in supermarkets. To provide the necessary information about the Australian distribution system to Vietnamese companies, the Vietnam Trade Office in Australia has introduced to local businesses the list of large retail groups in Australia with an annual revenue of AU$1 billion (US$782 million) and their basic activities to help them market their products directly to the Australian distribution chain.
It is seen that the trade value between Vietnam and Australia is increasing by an average of 5 per cent every year. The General Department of Customs mentioned that in 2017, the bilateral trade value between Vietnam and Australia reached more than 6.46 billion USD, a year-on-year growth of 22.9 per cent.
For Coats’ revenue for 2017 grew by four per cent, driven by apparel and footwear (up five per cent) and Performance Materials (up 12 per cent). Adjusted operating profit was up 11 per cent. Group operating margin was up 11.5 per cent. UK-based Coats, is an industrial thread manufacturer. Coats delivered a strong performance in 2017. The momentum continued throughout the year in key apparel and footwear markets, where it continued to take share, and it saw double-digit growth in hi-tech end-uses in Performance Materials.
In an environment of rising input costs, Coats was able to grow its operating margins, through realising price increases, productivity and procurement gains, as well as tight control of its cost base. Adjusted EPS was up 30 per cent as a result of higher operating profits, a further reduction in the effective tax rate and a reduction in finance costs.
Adjusted free cash flow growth was up 12 per cent. Following the strong performance in 2017 the company has announced a full year dividend per share, which represents a 15 per cent year-on-year increase. As such, 2018 adjusted operating profits are expected to be slightly ahead of previous expectations. Coats will also continue to focus on cash flow generation.
Sri Lanka’s earnings from garment exports to the EU increased 27.2 per cent year-on-year in December 2017. Garment exports to the US and other non-traditional markets increased by 18 per cent and 14.1 per cent, respectively, during December 2017. The increased exports to the European Union followed restoration of GSP Plus facility in May 2017.
The leading markets for merchandise exports from Sri Lanka in 2017 were: the US, the UK, India, Germany and Italy, accounting for about 50 per cent of total exports. Due to the combined effect of higher volumes and prices of bunker and aviation fuel, export earnings of petroleum products increased significantly in December 2017. Earnings from rubber products increased during the month mainly due to the export of tires. Earnings from exports surpassed a billion dollars in December 2017 for the fifth time during the year and recorded a double-digit growth year-on-year for the sixth consecutive month.
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) and the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles are working together to heighten sustainability across the European garment sector, improve working conditions and environmental protection in textile supply chains. As a part of the strategic cooperation, European companies that are members of both initiatives can receive coherent guidance about implementing environmental and social sustainability practices in their supply chains.
Members of the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles and the SAC will potentially further align reporting systems and foster opportunities for a joint methodology to improve the European garment sector. This strategic collaboration is seen as a step toward a leaner industry with more efficient practices and, ultimately, creating greater impact throughout the supply chains.
SAC’s strategic cooperation with Partnership for Sustainable Textiles comes on the heels of its recent supply chain transparency efforts. In November, SAC updated its Higg FEM tool to boost visibility and further reduce audit fatigue in apparel, footwear and textile supply chains. The Higg facility environmental module was developed to standardize sustainability measurement for global factories. The tool enables factories to evaluate their sustainability performance and seamlessly disclose results with their supply chain partners. The tool could help industry members reduce their carbon footprint, increase transparency and engage in more fair labor practices.
For fast fashion chain Primark same store sales for the past 16 weeks were up one per cent. A greater number of shoppers are snapping up its spring and summer wares. Same store sales in the UK were stronger with a four per cent increase. Sales are expected to get a boost with new store openings in UK, US and Spain.
Primark opened a 75,000 sq ft store in the UK. Primark will continue to drive sales growth through new stores. It added 16 new stores in the period, including several UK locations plus Ireland, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the US. Primark is an Anglo-Irish chain owned by Associated British Foods.
Of Primark’s top 20 stores by sales density, 15 are now in continental Europe including seven in its newest markets of France and Italy. Primark is unique among mega-sized retailers in not selling online. Fast-selling items last year included bomber jackets, while this autumn denim jackets, colored skinny jeans and striped dresses were fast moving.
However, Primark expects same store sales to drop by one per cent for the 24 weeks to March 3. Other retailers including New Look and House of Fraser have been struggling with changing shopping habits and a decline in sales.
The third edition of Garments Machinery Manufacturers & Suppliers Association (GMMSA) expo is now on in Ludhiana, the knitwear hub of India. The event is focussed on knitting (circular and flat) technology used in garment manufacturing. On day one, key technology solutions providers displayed latest innovations. Technology giants such as Stoll, IIGM, HCA, Magnum Resources, Ramsons, INA Systems, Aeon Commercial India, Grafica, Epson and Narinder International are present at the four-day exhibition.
Big garment exporters including MiniKing Knitwears and a significant number of mid-level organisations across India have already visited the show. Chandra Bhan Kataria, Founder & Director of Noida-based high-end knitted garment manufacturer Katbro Corporation says, “The current market situation is stable and my business is on the right track, thereby, I am planning to add some knitting machines to the existing knitting division and that’s why I am here at the show.”
Sanjay Kumar, Merchandiser, Pruthi International hopes to expand with some good-quality knitting technology and GMMSA is the best platform for that. Technology solution providers are expecting a significantly business at the fair as Ludhiana is continuously moving towards automation. Day 1 also saw the launch of cylinder bed top and bottom cover stitch machine by HCA. The company has presented this technology for the first time in this market, seeing its potential. The tech giant also put on show its ‘Kansai Special’.
ITMA 2019 will feature a number of industry-leading knowledge-sharing events to facilitate sharing and collaboration among global textile and garment industry members. Sustainable innovation, Industry 4.0 and automation will be key agendas during the show.
As per CEMATEX, owner of ITMA 2019, the cluster of accompanying events will highlight key industry challenges and cutting-edge solutions that will support industry members' drive for sustainability and competitiveness.
Fritz Mayer, President of CEMATEX, elaborates, "ITMA has evolved beyond its original aim of merely providing a buy-and-sell platform for textile machinery manufacturers. It is now a meaningful platform for all industry stakeholders to share new breakthroughs, brainstorm solutions and explore collaboration.”
Two events that have been successfully organised in conjunction include the Textile Colourant and Chemical Leaders Forum and the Nonwovens Forum. The 3rd Textile Colourant and Chemical Leaders Forum @ ITMA 2019 will focus on the theme: The Circular Economy and Resource Sustainability Strategy.
Andrew Filarowski, Chairman of the forum's organising committee and technical director of the Society of Dyers and Colourists says discussions will centre on the circular economy and resource sustainability strategy and how textile chemicals and innovative and cleaner technologies can support it under the influence of Industry 4.0 emerging strategic concept. The forum will be held on June 23, 2019.
ITMA will jointly organise the Nonwovens Forum @ ITMA 2019 with the International Association for the Nonwovens and Related Industries (EDANA). The one-day event on June 21 will feature discussions on the latest innovations in nonwovens based on the theme: Nonwovens manufacturing processes for the 21st century: more flexible, efficient, sustainable.
Pierre Wiertz, General Manager, EDANA, says they are are always exploring ways to help the industry to create a strong foundation for sustainable growth of the nonwovens and related industries through education and dialogue. Hence, we look forward to working with ITMA on the Nonwovens Forum.
